October 21, 2025 • 33 mins
Doug recaps an incredible Game 7 in Toronto, breaking down the key moments — including Seattle’s questionable pitching decisions that set up George Springer’s go-ahead three-run homer to send the Blue Jays to the next round.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome back, everybody. I'm your host, Doug mn Kavic. This
is the Dugout Podcast, and this is Game seven. The
best two words in sports, especially for baseball. You play six,
eight months, one hundred and sixty two games and it
comes down to one. This is where. This is where
heroes are made. This is where scapegoats become legends, and
(00:28):
managers become Hall of famers or managers become fired. This
is the reality of the situation for me going into
this game. I wrote down a couple questions I had
lead into this game. First and foremost, how long does
each manager go with their starter? How long is Dan
(00:48):
Wilson and John Schneider leave the guy out there? Basically,
you have everybody at your disposal besides yesterday's starter. The
game six starters. Everybody else is available. I think sometimes
too many arms can be confusing, more confusing than not
enough arms. You try to match him up and try
(01:08):
to figure out where's everybody's best slot, and if it
comes up that way, you act accordingly. Secondly, in this game,
to me, it's the bottom of the order. Obviously, I
don't really consider bar show at the bottom of the order,
but he's a you know, hitting fifth is not really
I don't consider that bottom of the order. But you
know the var show, Clement Barger, hemanez I KF has
been swinging it really well. So obviously the Blue Jays
(01:31):
have the edge there. The Mariners need something, anything out
of the bottom of the order, and that I think
that proved huge later in the game, and that whole
entire game of Game seven. I know, I wrote down
after game six varshow looked like he's really close to clicking.
If you look back at the Alds against the Yankees,
he had a couple of games that he pretty much
(01:53):
took over and his swings were getting better. He was
staying on bass. He was just missing them in game six,
and I thought, well, you know what, to me, he's
gonna be. He would be my pick to click in
game seven. Heading into it. Other question was how many
times does Vlad Junior get potentially walked make someone else
beat you. I know they're deep, their lineups deeper, but
you don't let stars be stars in games like this
(02:14):
make someone else beat you. Can you answer? Momentum swings
is a huge one. There's gonna be constant momentum swings
in the Game seven, emotionally, physically, all of it. How
quickly do you bounce back from something that doesn't go
your way? You know, I always talked about this, especially
on this podcast, about managing survive the first inning. If
you look at this whole series, whoever was leading, usually
(02:37):
after three had a really good grasp on the game.
Obviously in this game changed later in the game, but
I think I'll get into it later, but the Mariners
had a chance to change some things early in this
game in the first three innings that would have changed
the outcome of the baseball game. Who wins the battle
of getting the leadoff hitter of each inning and games
(02:58):
and must win games in Game sevens elimination games, keeping
the leadoff hitter off first is huge. It is paramount.
Usually whoever wins that battle ends up winning the game.
Which manager is going to make the right move, and
which one's going to be scrutinized to eternity. That's the
reality of what we do. You go back to Grady
Little two thousand and three. I think you've talked to
(03:20):
the Red Sox back then. They they loved Gretty Little.
You know that decision changed not only his future, but
the future of the Red Sox. Things like this. Decisions
like this can make or break people's careers, and who
will go down as the hero and who'll go down
on the scapegoat. Will it be a veteran, will it
be a young guy someone we don't expect. That's the
(03:43):
beauty of Game seven. You just don't know. And it's
almost like you have to play each inning like it's
an entire game to get through it. And I think
this game had everything. This game had defense, this game
had offense, this game had homers, this game had questionable
decisions by me, it had everything everything at Game seven
(04:04):
you could want. Just from the start, I felt like
both arms didn't have their best stuff. A lot of
guys left stuff up early that split the plate. That
could have been worse, But we talked about surviving the
first inning, and we'll go right into that. Top of
the first we have Mariners hitting Shane Bieber on the mound.
(04:24):
If you look at this series outside of Game five,
the team that was winning after the first three innings
seemed to be more in control of this game and
almost every game in the series. So getting it off
to a fast start, especially in Game seven, is huge.
Having a lead into Game seven. As a manager, it
changes your mindset. It changes the way you use your bullpen.
(04:46):
When you know you're going to use your bullpen a
ton you it's just a it's a it's a it's
a weapon. And if you're the visiting team, getting off
to a fast start is huge. Get the crowd out
of the game, jump on them early. I thought Bieber
made a couple. He had to make some really quality pitches,
good quality pitches in the first but he also made
some really bad ones that they're lucky that was only
one nothing. Julio hits a double on a hanging slider.
(05:10):
He ends up punching out rally and then Naylor gets
a single, which I think he made a ton of
money for himself this postseason. Whether you needed to hit
a double, homer, a defensive play made jumping in the
way of a double play ball, he did everything you
possibly ask for to help his team take it to
the next step. I think he made a ton of
money for himself. So Naylor makes it one nothing. This
(05:34):
ties into Polanco hits into a double play. I know
from past experience with Jorge that he never really cared
a dh and if something it looks like whenever he
moved a DH his numbers suffered. He was rolling and
now I don't know, behind the scenes, his knee might
have acted up. They might have wanted to get him
(05:55):
off the turf. They wanted to get Rebus, who's probably
a tick better athletically and defense at this point in
his career. But it seemed awful coincidental that as soon
as he moved to DH his numbers went. Now, if
he has a problem with his knee, that makes sense too.
Anytime you have a lower body injury, it usually takes
a while or it hampers your offensive output. But it
(06:18):
was something I was curious about. When he moved to DH,
he wasn't as hot as he was when he was
playing second base, so we moved to the bottom of
the first Now we talked about momentum swings. How do
you answer, You have to answer right away. It's always good.
Don't let the guy, don't let the posing starter get
his feet wet, you know, put pressure on him. Early
Kirby ends up walking. George Springer, you know Springer on
(06:42):
the basis right now with getting hit with a hundred
mile oar fastball off his kneecap. He's not the same
ceiling threat he was before. But anytime a leadoff hitter
gets on, especially in the postseason, it's dangerous. Head over
to the bottom of the first George Springer has a
great at bat, six pitch at bat looked like Kirby
didn't quite have his man yet, which I get it.
Adrenaline emotions of Game seven kind of running all over
(07:05):
the place. It's nice to have, you know, one of
the best postseason players in the history of the game
leading off for you. He gets on after a flatball
by Luke's Vladimir Guerrero. He gets the two strikes and
he throws. Kirby throws a fastball right down the middle,
completely misses the spot. Blad Junior doesn't miss it. So
(07:26):
now we have got two guys on. We end up
This is kind of the Ying and Yang to this.
I think both Bieber and Kirby had flashes of the same,
have the same battles. They would make quality pitch, quality pitch,
and then try to make a better pitch. And it
ended up like the Guerrero bat, sinker sinker, foul ball,
and then all of a sudden, here comes she tries
(07:47):
to go up and in and he throws it. He
splits the plate with it, and Laddie, even when he's off,
probably hits that ball. But now that he's now that
he's completely red hot, he's not missing that. You make
a mistake oh two. But then you turn around and
the bat to Kirk. He makes quality pitches throughout the
whole thing ends up punching him out. And then you
go to the varshow at bat where you know he
(08:08):
made a hell of a slider. I made a hell
of pitch on the slider down and Varso stayed on it,
hit up the middle and answered him back right there
to make it one to one. And I just felt
like at that point, man, I was like, we're in
for one of those back and forth, gut wrenching Thank god.
I'm not a fan of either team. I'm just a
fan of baseball because I can only imagine what each
(08:28):
fan base is going through from just the first inning,
the constant back and forth. This looks like and has
the feel of that's gonna happen. It's already tense enough
in Game seven, but to have that, you know, live
and die by every pitch, it's the beauty of October baseball.
Now here's where things get interesting for me. Top of
the second, you get a single by a Rose Arena,
(08:52):
you get a swore As single. You have Crawford up.
He lays down a bunt, which I have no problem with,
I understand, and he had trouble getting the bunt down
in the previous series against the Tigers. I don't know
if it was a sign or if he did it
on his own album. Guessing it's a sign. One run
is huge in October. That's just the difference of baseball
(09:16):
in April than it is in October. Here you have Crawford,
a veteran bunting in the second inning of a playoff game,
which you'd never see that ever in a regular season game,
lays it down, gets him over. The Blue Jays play back,
play their infield back, so they have that feel I
have where this is gonna be one of those nights
where I'd rather give up one than give up two
(09:38):
on a bloop or whatever. And this is where it
went awry. If you notice both teams were taking really
good swings balls, they were attacking the zone. There wasn't
a lot of chase at that point. Then you have
Reeves come up. Now, I understand he got you a
huge hit in the alds when it looked really bleak.
He gets a single that scores the time run. I
(09:59):
get it. He was supposedly it was the more contact
oriented guy. If you looked at that swing, those swings
in the second end he mispitches by three feet. Goes
back to what we always talk about. If you take
what the game gives you, you'll never be wrong. You
walk up to the plate, see the infield back. Hey man,
I might take one shot, one shot for my ace wing,
(10:22):
but I'm gonna make sure I do everything I can
to hit a ground ball and the short stop hit
a ground ball a second base. I look at it
this way. Crawford gave up, gave himself up for the
betterman the team. You should do the same thing. And
that's it's always runs like that that come back and
haunt you. Bab pitches out of it. He ends up
(10:42):
stranding second and third. It's a huge momentum swing to me.
You ask any guy that's ever played at any level.
You get second and third and one out, you should
score eighty five percent of the time. I don't care
who's throwing, especially with the infield back shorten up. Whatever
you gotta do, get jammed, get blown up. You can't
punch out there, you just can't. You have to put
the ball in play. They're the top one percent of
(11:04):
baseball players in the world. You should be able to
hit a ground ball in your sleep to the middle infield.
I don't care who's throwing figured out, especially in that situation.
It's about being able to harness your emotions. And I
think the gravity of the situation kind of got to
revis there because if you remember the Alds, he had
a pinch hit single. That at bat's probably way harder
(11:29):
than starting in the game seven. But it just shows
you that you know, these guys are human and it's hard.
It's hard to control your emotions at times, and that
was one of one where I felt like he tried
to do too much and the situation overwhelmed him. We
move on to the top of the third. Bieber, still
pitching for the Blue Jays, hung another slider to Julio Rodriguez.
(11:50):
This one was more out over the plate and that's
why it landed in the stands. I looked at I
was always curious to how long Schneider's gonna stay with Bieber.
Pitch counts don't mean anything game sevens, especially when you
have the entire arsenal behind you. You have your entire
pitching staff behind you. Sure you want them to go
deep in the game and dominate, but you don't need it.
(12:10):
You tell him to go as hard as you can
for as long as you can, and we got plenty
of guys that back you up. I thought he hung
two pitches to Julio, he had a double and a homer.
He made pitches to cal Rally because I think he
struck him out twice. But that's why you have you know,
that's where length in your lineup is key, because if
one guy doesn't get him, the other one does. Julio
(12:32):
takes a slider or hanging slider into left field for
a homer, makes it two to one. I would have
thought about going to get him right there, just because
the only two guys a Mariner lineup chased one was
a Rosarina in the third, which he does that religiously,
that's just who he is, and Arrevus. Those are the
only two guys that really went out of the strike
(12:54):
zone bad to get swings and misses, so the other
Mariner guys, other manner of hitters doing a good job
of keeping him in the zone and battling and making
him throw it over. It just seemed like if he
waited him out long enough, he was gonna make a mistake.
He was gonna give you something to hit. It's just
a matter of if you were, if you were ready
for it. And you know, he made a mistake, that
(13:15):
made two mistakes to one of the best hitters in
the game in Julio, and that's why he hit a
double in a homer. As far as the m's go,
I thought Kirby settled down. I thought he'd pitched really well.
I thought he was getting better. First inning was a
little shaky, but I felt like he was getting stronger,
and he threw four solid innings. I'm not real sure
(13:39):
if I would have taken him out there, I try.
I would have probably would have tried to squeeze one
more out of him. The way everything was set up,
I have no problem with him bringing Wu in. I
just felt like at this point Kirby was doing what
I expected him to do. He got better, his stuff
got better, his command got better. I just think you
roll the dice and throw him back out there for
one more inning. Here we go to the top of
(14:00):
the fifth. This is where some of the decision making
in my mind starts to get a little questionable. This
ties into where we are in the game today. Darters
can't face the lineup three times because if they get
seen so much, right, because the numbers tell you that
it doesn't work. Yeah, with your average run on the mill,
(14:22):
starter probably right, But when you have an ace out there,
you can throw those numbers out the window. But on
the same token, these same people tell you that it's
okay to run John Varlin out there ten out of the
last eleven games. And in a seven game series. It's
completely different than a regular season. It's completely different than
(14:42):
a three game series. It's completely different than a five
game series. You start running these guys out there four
or five times. Every time you get them up, you
get them hot, you sit them down, you get them up.
There's a lot it's not only the wear and tear
of the physical side of this, but the mental side
of this, where every pitch matter you start to grind
on them and emostly it becomes draining so and the
(15:05):
quality of stuff goes down. The longer these series go,
and the more you see a guy, generally the advantage
goes to the hitter because now you know what it
looks like. You see pitch shape, you see tendencies, you
see spin, You have an idea how they're trying to
get you out with this guy. So all this information
you're gaining as a hitter, it becomes more to you
(15:27):
than it did in the beginning. So I have no
problem with Schneider coming to get Varlin, framing Varlin in
for Beaver and the fourth, no problem at all. But
you've used him ten out of last eleven games, and
you have the entire staff to get through the next
four innings or five inches, whatever it is. You make
(15:50):
them go back out there now again his tenth game,
and out of eleven games they played, he's pitched and
he's given up some big homers. You're going into this
inning with two, three, four. You've got to go through
cal Rally, who's arguably the MVP, Naylor, who's hotter than
(16:12):
a firecracker, and Jorge Plonka, who already took you deep
earlier in the series. If that's the window and that's
the lane you wanted this guy to go in. We
got some questions to ask upstairs. To me, I'm going
with my best arm ups available, I think, and you
match it up. I think Gosman is a has better
stuff against that part of the lineup than Varlin does.
(16:35):
You're gonna use him. He's a starter. You want him
to start a clean inning. There it is. Barlin gets
you out of the fourth, you bring Gosman in. I'm
gonna bring him in anyways. I'm also bring him in now,
especially against two, three, four. It doesn't he ends up.
Varlin ends up. Give him a home run to cal Rally,
which when you hit sixty five of them on a season,
you take a lot of guys deep. But uh, it
(16:55):
just shows you how different a different looks. Cal strikes
out twice against biab Boom. Bring in a reliever, probably
throws harder and all that other stuff. He clicks him.
So now you're up three to one. I'm sure as
an MS fan, I know I was doing it if
I was managing. I'm thinking back to the second and
the going. Man, I really wish we'd hit a ground ball,
(17:16):
But four to one is a lot different than three
to one. It doesn't sound like much, but yes, it is.
Here we go, Barlin gets out of that, we keep
moving on. This is the other part of this. The
EMS bring in Wu with the fifth to face nine
to one to two. To me, this is where things
went awry. I think you can send Kirby back out
(17:38):
there to pitch to nine to one to two nothing
against Wu. I think you've got a two run cushion.
Now you can send him back out and see what happens.
If he walks a guy, if he gives him a hit,
then you have a decision to make. But you let
him try. He was getting better. I thought he was
getting better as the game went on. Nine to one
to two is a good window. And not only yes,
(17:59):
I know Wu got out of that with a one
two three inning. We end up getting adult playball. So
I think he walked the first guy. As you're thinking,
when he walks the first guy, you're thinking, oh boy,
you know this is where the second guessing comes in.
But his stuff is different. He has been the best
pitcher for the MS all season. Fastball's got ride. He
has trust, he has a little bit of tenacity to him.
(18:21):
I just would have waited one more inning, hoping that
Kirby can get through nine to one to two. And
now I have Wu facing Vlad with a two run lead,
a minimum of two run lead at the next inning.
I move on to the bottom of the seventh, and
this is whereat escapegoats are made, and this is where
legends are made. You have Wu who's still throwing for
the MS he starts the seventh. This goes back to
(18:44):
bringing him in an inning too soon. You probably think
he's gonna throw two innings, right, So if you back up,
let Kirby go five, you have Wu for six seven.
Now you have the entire chamber too empty to get
six outs in the eighth and nine. You let him
go out and start the seventh, have no problem with that.
They could get to a walk. He ends up given
(19:05):
a two strike single to connorfer Leffa, which was a
good piece of hitting. I don't think I don't think
Crawford got the best jump on that ball, but you
got a ground ball out of it. Now, to me,
this is where this is probably the biggest question I
had throughout the entire game. Is this ending right here?
And I'll explain why. If you're gonna start Woo in
(19:28):
that inning, you let him finish it. I thought stuff wise,
they bought him over. You got second and third woo.
Stuff is different. He's rested, sure, his command is not
exactly where it was in the beginning of the year
because he's just come off the rib injury. I'm gonna
let him ride. If I'm gonna let him start the inning,
(19:50):
and if you're gonna let him face the tying run
at the plate, you let him face to me, you
let him face Springer, you're gonna them finish that inning,
because there's a reason why you send him back out
there in the first place. I definitely leave him in
the game if you're gonna bring in Bizarrero. And this
is my biggest problem with the entire game. Bizardo threw
(20:11):
two innings in Game six, down four. So you're telling
me that, out of all the guys you have in
your pen, Bizarro and the highest leverage situation in this
game in game seven is Bizarrero against the top of
the order, probably for the last time in this series.
If he's your high leverage guy, why in the world
(20:34):
is he throwing two innings of a game in game
six when you're down four. It doesn't make any sense.
It doesn't make any sense at all. Look, I get
some thoughts of guys bringing in their closer. It's not
a bad spot to bring him in. It's not Ramos.
This is the game right here. Sure, as a manager,
you're not thinking about giving up a three run homer,
(20:56):
But just that situation I just described. If he's your
best arm to pitch the most cruel, crucial situation of
your season, why in the world is he pitching in
Game six, two innings when you're down four runs. It
just doesn't make sense. And I try to listen to
at the postgame. I didn't hear anybody mention that. Anybody
(21:16):
talk about that. I'm curious to see if anybody questions that,
because I'm sitting there like like my face is itching,
because I'm like, this doesn't make any sense. Kudos to
George Springer, My goodness, gracious, how he's able to walk
is a minor miracle. Let alone click one with that magnitude.
(21:37):
Season Country, however, you want to put it on the
line and you come through right there. Man, what a
feeling I feel for everybody in that regard, whether it's
joy or misery, though that's what those moments will take
for the rest of your life, whether you're good or bad.
But man, oh man, to be able to slow down
and do it time and time and time again, like
George Springer has, He's just got it. He's got it.
(22:01):
I don't think he's talked about enough as far as
that goes. I think he's third all time in postseason
home runs, which there's some really quality, really great players
that haven't had the opportunities he had. But to perform
in that situation and to do it time and time
and time again, to climb that ladder, that's really impressive.
(22:23):
I don't think he gets the credit he deserves for
being as good a player as he is and a
gamer that he is, and a culture changer as he is.
So this goes, I mean, go get We end up
getting out of that MS, get out of that to
one run game. We talked about it earlier. Momentum swing
is how do you handle them? They're going to happen.
They're gonna happen. It's October. You just took a sledgehammer
(22:46):
to the stomach. What do you do? How do you respond?
And I felt like the MS had the worst part
of the order and the worst guy leading off they
possibly could have. You're out there, you know that energy
is through the roof, and a Rosana goes up swings
to the first pitch. I don't really have a problem
with swinging at the first pitch, but it's intent. This
(23:07):
is where results kind of matter. You know. It's about
I know, free swinging, and you're gonna let your players
be do who they are, be who they are. I
know he didn't mean to do that, but if you're
gonna swing at the first pitch after that half inning,
it better be loud, and it better be a laser
(23:27):
or a better leave. It better knocks some paint off
the seats in the upper deck. It doesn't make any
sense you bring in a Bassett different look. Hasn't thrown much. Obviously,
he's full of adrenaline. I always talked about to the
teams that I've managed. Sometimes let the player let the
pitcher feel a situation. It's like base is loaded, he's
in trouble, not me let him feel this. Let him
(23:51):
feel the magnitude of the place on his feet. You
just hit a three run homer to put you up
a run, Let him feel, let him try to find it.
You're telling me that one pitch out of all the
guys they could have brought out stuff wise Bascett, Yes,
of course he's a big leaguer. Guess his stuff is incredible.
(24:11):
But it's not. It's not a reliever, it's not their closer.
It's let me see one, let me have him feel
this a little bit instead. There's nothing more valuable in
October one than first pitch outs. Ask any Ask any
pitcher who's pitched in the postseason. First pitch outs are
(24:32):
are sent from the heavens. It's the first pitch. Now,
all of a sudden, you got before you even sit
down and get finished drinking your water, coming off the field,
after just taking one straight in the gut, there's already
nobody on and one out. He ends up getting out
of it. Now, this is another part that I have.
So now the Blue Jays are hitting the bottom of
the eighth, you bring your closer in then, huh So
(24:54):
you'll bring him in in the bottom of the eighth
down a run, But you won't bring them in with
the game on the line the inning before. I understand
the whole You know that's the way you do it,
because you got to get through the bottom of the
eighth to get to the top of the ninth. But
your season is resting on the line. You threw multiple
(25:16):
innings in the Alds times when the game is in
the line, I think you want your best. It goes
back to what I talked about with Gosman Gosman in Parland.
I think Goswein's got better stuff. I think I want
my better stuff facing the top of the order. You're
going through that meating of the order. I want my
clotheser doing it. Granted, he gave up two rockets to
(25:37):
start the inning, but he got out of it. He
got out of a first and third. Nobody out because
his stuff overwhelmed some guys. You gotta punch out, and
he got out of it. He up a line drive
double play, which was obviously huge, but he gave up
some rockets, but he got out of it. You think
you started to see towards the end of that series
the wear and tear that the fifteen innings against Detroit
put on these guys and put on their bullpen. A
(25:58):
couple of the guys did look sharp at all, and
that's just from getting up and getting used so much.
Along the lines of stuff. Wise Brash has been their
eighth inning guy pretty much the whole season. He didn't
bring him in and you looked at his stuff in
Game six, h Slaughder didn't have any bite to it.
He labored through an inning. But all you need those
guys is you can get the way he works. You've
(26:20):
got the three batter minimum. I understand that, but you
can when you finish it any you bring them two outs.
He might only have to throw over the face one guy,
and if he gets that guy, you roll the dice
and keep the line moving and keep the door. It
just shows you how one pitch, one hitter, one matchup
can change the thought process of a manager, the thought
(26:42):
process of how we're gonna work this and how we're
gonna scale this. It changes a lot. When you have
that many available arms, you know you might as well
the one. Joe Torrey always talked about a man team
my gun. Joe Torrey was great at that. He never
left the bullet in the chamber. It didn't matter if
it was May or if it was October. He used
the entire arsenal and that's why he was so successful.
(27:04):
You roll into the top of the ninth hoffmins in
the game and I was texting some buddies and I
just said, if you have if you could have the
balls to just stand there and take I really truly
believe this guy would not throw three pitches in his
own And it just so happened that the M's were
(27:24):
at the Mariners were in a bad spot their lineup revs.
Pinch Hitter, his own young guys probably thinking about trying
to tie the game up with one swing. Stay who
you are, be true to who you are. I think
the biggest detriment to Revis was the fact that he
almost did a home running game. I think it was
game six. H at the top of the fence might
(27:46):
have been the worst thing that happened to him, because
now he's thinking he can do that again, and he
got away from what and the reason why he was
in the lineup to start with was his contact ability.
If you noticed, he ended up Hoffman ended up punching
out both of them start the end. You know that
leadoff hitter. I know it's hard. Let me wrong, I
know it's hard. I know it's this makes really easy
to do it from the couch. But if you can
(28:07):
have the trust and the belief that, like, okay, I'm
gonna make this guy throw three pitches in his zone.
If he gets me out in the strike zone, I
can handle it. I'm not gonna chase all three hitters
that it ain't chased, you know. I said it in
Game six, watching Hoffman throw like he's not throwing a
ton of strikes. He's getting a lot of swing and misses.
Stuff wise, his stuff isn't really any better than what
(28:31):
these guys normally see as far as velocity wise, spin wise,
all that to see guys chase. I get Julio chasing
in the ninth two to oh, you know, sweeper slider
that's way off the plate. Look, I get it. I
don't mind my stuperstars trying to tie the game up.
I had a problem with my eight to nine. Try
to do it. Be who you are, Be who you are.
(28:52):
Get on first, find a way, stay short. Look at
the bottom of the order. On the other, the Blue Jays,
they're relentless, they keep coming singles. Contact. Where are you down,
Kase Mahomer and baseball is really huge. If you see
a little, you see a lot. If you see a lot,
you see nothing. And that pretty much sums up hitting.
If you think small, big things will happen. If you
(29:15):
think big, nothing happens, And that's kind of what you saw.
The youth and the inexperience of the Mariners probably never
getting the World Series really was for the first time.
It overtook some of their guys. You look at them
even in Game six three errors uncharacteristic. I thought they
played a hell a lot better in Game seven. But
at the end of the day, it's a shame that
(29:37):
one of these teams had to lose. Wrap it up.
All in all, this was a phenomenal series, back and forth,
two fan bases starving to make it to the World Series,
a couple players on the Mariners and Joy Polanco Mitch
Garver was pulling like hell for them to get to
the World Series. Each of them had their moments in
this series that helped their team win. The Blue Jays
(29:59):
I managed again Vlad Junior Boba Schett played for Donnie
don natally got me into coaching. Ross Atkins, the general
manager of the Blue Jays. I went to Japan when
I was eleven with him. He went to crol Gables.
I went to Westminster and Palmetto, so I played against
him in high school. He went to Wake Forest. I
went to Floria State, so we played against each other there.
(30:20):
Ross was drafted by the Cleveland Indians at the time.
I was a twin. We've played each other, played against
each other in Double A. So really happy for don
Nintalley and getting in the World Series. Love it. I'm
so happy for him, So happy for Ross. You know,
I think it's a shame that one team had to
lose this and one fan base had to lose this.
(30:41):
It's just that's what Game sevens are all about, and
they delivered. Each team will look back at this later
on in life and realize they're just be happy they
were a part of it. Sure you want to win,
of course, but just to say you were a part
of something like that and you were there to witness that,
you know, it goes without saying. So congrat relations to
the Toronto Blue Jays, Ross, Donnie John You guys have
(31:03):
an uphill paddle. Pretty cool that if the Blue Jays
pulled this off. Donnie would go through the Yankees and
the Dodgers for both teams that one team he played for,
and both teams he coached for, and one of them
he managed for. So I think all in all, the
Blue Jays are better suited to match up with the Dodgers.
(31:29):
I don't think they have the pitching the Dodgers do,
but they have the lineup and their lineups are very similar,
not in names, but in production, they're very similar. So
we'll definitely do a World Series preview. But that's just
the quick and the off the top of my head
thought of this. Here we go. I know one thing,
(31:51):
the Dodgers were pissed that the Blue Jays pulled this off.
Here's why. That flight from LA to Seattle is a
hell of a lot closer through than that flight from
LA to through Customs into Toronto. That's gonna be a
tough one. That's a long trip. That's a long trip
from LA to Toronto. But should be good. Should be
a good series. Hopefully it's more than four or five games,
(32:15):
because that means baseball's over. But we'll do a whole
recap and who'll probably a lead into the World Series
when we get closer to it. But that's gonna wrap
up this Game seven edition of The Dugout. Appreciate you listening.
Check me out wherever you hear your favorite podcast, Apple, Spotify,
check me out on Twitter, check me out on Instagram
if you'd like, leave a comment, ask questions. Would love
(32:38):
to do some kind of watch party during the World Series.
Talk the game. Love talking the game to most people
on Twitter. Not everybody, but most people. So until next time,
this is your host, Doug. Take care,
Welcome back, everybody. I'm your host, Doug mn Kavic. This
is the Dugout Podcast, and this is Game seven. The
best two words in sports, especially for baseball. You play six,
eight months, one hundred and sixty two games and it
comes down to one. This is where. This is where
heroes are made. This is where scapegoats become legends, and
(00:28):
managers become Hall of famers or managers become fired. This
is the reality of the situation for me going into
this game. I wrote down a couple questions I had
lead into this game. First and foremost, how long does
each manager go with their starter? How long is Dan
(00:48):
Wilson and John Schneider leave the guy out there? Basically,
you have everybody at your disposal besides yesterday's starter. The
game six starters. Everybody else is available. I think sometimes
too many arms can be confusing, more confusing than not
enough arms. You try to match him up and try
(01:08):
to figure out where's everybody's best slot, and if it
comes up that way, you act accordingly. Secondly, in this game,
to me, it's the bottom of the order. Obviously, I
don't really consider bar show at the bottom of the order,
but he's a you know, hitting fifth is not really
I don't consider that bottom of the order. But you
know the var show, Clement Barger, hemanez I KF has
been swinging it really well. So obviously the Blue Jays
(01:31):
have the edge there. The Mariners need something, anything out
of the bottom of the order, and that I think
that proved huge later in the game, and that whole
entire game of Game seven. I know, I wrote down
after game six varshow looked like he's really close to clicking.
If you look back at the Alds against the Yankees,
he had a couple of games that he pretty much
(01:53):
took over and his swings were getting better. He was
staying on bass. He was just missing them in game six,
and I thought, well, you know what, to me, he's
gonna be. He would be my pick to click in
game seven. Heading into it. Other question was how many
times does Vlad Junior get potentially walked make someone else
beat you. I know they're deep, their lineups deeper, but
you don't let stars be stars in games like this
(02:14):
make someone else beat you. Can you answer? Momentum swings
is a huge one. There's gonna be constant momentum swings
in the Game seven, emotionally, physically, all of it. How
quickly do you bounce back from something that doesn't go
your way? You know, I always talked about this, especially
on this podcast, about managing survive the first inning. If
you look at this whole series, whoever was leading, usually
(02:37):
after three had a really good grasp on the game.
Obviously in this game changed later in the game, but
I think I'll get into it later, but the Mariners
had a chance to change some things early in this
game in the first three innings that would have changed
the outcome of the baseball game. Who wins the battle
of getting the leadoff hitter of each inning and games
(02:58):
and must win games in Game sevens elimination games, keeping
the leadoff hitter off first is huge. It is paramount.
Usually whoever wins that battle ends up winning the game.
Which manager is going to make the right move, and
which one's going to be scrutinized to eternity. That's the
reality of what we do. You go back to Grady
Little two thousand and three. I think you've talked to
(03:20):
the Red Sox back then. They they loved Gretty Little.
You know that decision changed not only his future, but
the future of the Red Sox. Things like this. Decisions
like this can make or break people's careers, and who
will go down as the hero and who'll go down
on the scapegoat. Will it be a veteran, will it
be a young guy someone we don't expect. That's the
(03:43):
beauty of Game seven. You just don't know. And it's
almost like you have to play each inning like it's
an entire game to get through it. And I think
this game had everything. This game had defense, this game
had offense, this game had homers, this game had questionable
decisions by me, it had everything everything at Game seven
(04:04):
you could want. Just from the start, I felt like
both arms didn't have their best stuff. A lot of
guys left stuff up early that split the plate. That
could have been worse, But we talked about surviving the
first inning, and we'll go right into that. Top of
the first we have Mariners hitting Shane Bieber on the mound.
(04:24):
If you look at this series outside of Game five,
the team that was winning after the first three innings
seemed to be more in control of this game and
almost every game in the series. So getting it off
to a fast start, especially in Game seven, is huge.
Having a lead into Game seven. As a manager, it
changes your mindset. It changes the way you use your bullpen.
(04:46):
When you know you're going to use your bullpen a
ton you it's just a it's a it's a it's
a weapon. And if you're the visiting team, getting off
to a fast start is huge. Get the crowd out
of the game, jump on them early. I thought Bieber
made a couple. He had to make some really quality pitches,
good quality pitches in the first but he also made
some really bad ones that they're lucky that was only
one nothing. Julio hits a double on a hanging slider.
(05:10):
He ends up punching out rally and then Naylor gets
a single, which I think he made a ton of
money for himself this postseason. Whether you needed to hit
a double, homer, a defensive play made jumping in the
way of a double play ball, he did everything you
possibly ask for to help his team take it to
the next step. I think he made a ton of
money for himself. So Naylor makes it one nothing. This
(05:34):
ties into Polanco hits into a double play. I know
from past experience with Jorge that he never really cared
a dh and if something it looks like whenever he
moved a DH his numbers suffered. He was rolling and
now I don't know, behind the scenes, his knee might
have acted up. They might have wanted to get him
(05:55):
off the turf. They wanted to get Rebus, who's probably
a tick better athletically and defense at this point in
his career. But it seemed awful coincidental that as soon
as he moved to DH his numbers went. Now, if
he has a problem with his knee, that makes sense too.
Anytime you have a lower body injury, it usually takes
a while or it hampers your offensive output. But it
(06:18):
was something I was curious about. When he moved to DH,
he wasn't as hot as he was when he was
playing second base, so we moved to the bottom of
the first Now we talked about momentum swings. How do
you answer, You have to answer right away. It's always good.
Don't let the guy, don't let the posing starter get
his feet wet, you know, put pressure on him. Early
Kirby ends up walking. George Springer, you know Springer on
(06:42):
the basis right now with getting hit with a hundred
mile oar fastball off his kneecap. He's not the same
ceiling threat he was before. But anytime a leadoff hitter
gets on, especially in the postseason, it's dangerous. Head over
to the bottom of the first George Springer has a
great at bat, six pitch at bat looked like Kirby
didn't quite have his man yet, which I get it.
Adrenaline emotions of Game seven kind of running all over
(07:05):
the place. It's nice to have, you know, one of
the best postseason players in the history of the game
leading off for you. He gets on after a flatball
by Luke's Vladimir Guerrero. He gets the two strikes and
he throws. Kirby throws a fastball right down the middle,
completely misses the spot. Blad Junior doesn't miss it. So
(07:26):
now we have got two guys on. We end up
This is kind of the Ying and Yang to this.
I think both Bieber and Kirby had flashes of the same,
have the same battles. They would make quality pitch, quality pitch,
and then try to make a better pitch. And it
ended up like the Guerrero bat, sinker sinker, foul ball,
and then all of a sudden, here comes she tries
(07:47):
to go up and in and he throws it. He
splits the plate with it, and Laddie, even when he's off,
probably hits that ball. But now that he's now that
he's completely red hot, he's not missing that. You make
a mistake oh two. But then you turn around and
the bat to Kirk. He makes quality pitches throughout the
whole thing ends up punching him out. And then you
go to the varshow at bat where you know he
(08:08):
made a hell of a slider. I made a hell
of pitch on the slider down and Varso stayed on it,
hit up the middle and answered him back right there
to make it one to one. And I just felt
like at that point, man, I was like, we're in
for one of those back and forth, gut wrenching Thank god.
I'm not a fan of either team. I'm just a
fan of baseball because I can only imagine what each
(08:28):
fan base is going through from just the first inning,
the constant back and forth. This looks like and has
the feel of that's gonna happen. It's already tense enough
in Game seven, but to have that, you know, live
and die by every pitch, it's the beauty of October baseball.
Now here's where things get interesting for me. Top of
the second, you get a single by a Rose Arena,
(08:52):
you get a swore As single. You have Crawford up.
He lays down a bunt, which I have no problem with,
I understand, and he had trouble getting the bunt down
in the previous series against the Tigers. I don't know
if it was a sign or if he did it
on his own album. Guessing it's a sign. One run
is huge in October. That's just the difference of baseball
(09:16):
in April than it is in October. Here you have Crawford,
a veteran bunting in the second inning of a playoff game,
which you'd never see that ever in a regular season game,
lays it down, gets him over. The Blue Jays play back,
play their infield back, so they have that feel I
have where this is gonna be one of those nights
where I'd rather give up one than give up two
(09:38):
on a bloop or whatever. And this is where it
went awry. If you notice both teams were taking really
good swings balls, they were attacking the zone. There wasn't
a lot of chase at that point. Then you have
Reeves come up. Now, I understand he got you a
huge hit in the alds when it looked really bleak.
He gets a single that scores the time run. I
(09:59):
get it. He was supposedly it was the more contact
oriented guy. If you looked at that swing, those swings
in the second end he mispitches by three feet. Goes
back to what we always talk about. If you take
what the game gives you, you'll never be wrong. You
walk up to the plate, see the infield back. Hey man,
I might take one shot, one shot for my ace wing,
(10:22):
but I'm gonna make sure I do everything I can
to hit a ground ball and the short stop hit
a ground ball a second base. I look at it
this way. Crawford gave up, gave himself up for the
betterman the team. You should do the same thing. And
that's it's always runs like that that come back and
haunt you. Bab pitches out of it. He ends up
(10:42):
stranding second and third. It's a huge momentum swing to me.
You ask any guy that's ever played at any level.
You get second and third and one out, you should
score eighty five percent of the time. I don't care
who's throwing, especially with the infield back shorten up. Whatever
you gotta do, get jammed, get blown up. You can't
punch out there, you just can't. You have to put
the ball in play. They're the top one percent of
(11:04):
baseball players in the world. You should be able to
hit a ground ball in your sleep to the middle infield.
I don't care who's throwing figured out, especially in that situation.
It's about being able to harness your emotions. And I
think the gravity of the situation kind of got to
revis there because if you remember the Alds, he had
a pinch hit single. That at bat's probably way harder
(11:29):
than starting in the game seven. But it just shows
you that you know, these guys are human and it's hard.
It's hard to control your emotions at times, and that
was one of one where I felt like he tried
to do too much and the situation overwhelmed him. We
move on to the top of the third. Bieber, still
pitching for the Blue Jays, hung another slider to Julio Rodriguez.
(11:50):
This one was more out over the plate and that's
why it landed in the stands. I looked at I
was always curious to how long Schneider's gonna stay with Bieber.
Pitch counts don't mean anything game sevens, especially when you
have the entire arsenal behind you. You have your entire
pitching staff behind you. Sure you want them to go
deep in the game and dominate, but you don't need it.
(12:10):
You tell him to go as hard as you can
for as long as you can, and we got plenty
of guys that back you up. I thought he hung
two pitches to Julio, he had a double and a homer.
He made pitches to cal Rally because I think he
struck him out twice. But that's why you have you know,
that's where length in your lineup is key, because if
one guy doesn't get him, the other one does. Julio
(12:32):
takes a slider or hanging slider into left field for
a homer, makes it two to one. I would have
thought about going to get him right there, just because
the only two guys a Mariner lineup chased one was
a Rosarina in the third, which he does that religiously,
that's just who he is, and Arrevus. Those are the
only two guys that really went out of the strike
(12:54):
zone bad to get swings and misses, so the other
Mariner guys, other manner of hitters doing a good job
of keeping him in the zone and battling and making
him throw it over. It just seemed like if he
waited him out long enough, he was gonna make a mistake.
He was gonna give you something to hit. It's just
a matter of if you were, if you were ready
for it. And you know, he made a mistake, that
(13:15):
made two mistakes to one of the best hitters in
the game in Julio, and that's why he hit a
double in a homer. As far as the m's go,
I thought Kirby settled down. I thought he'd pitched really well.
I thought he was getting better. First inning was a
little shaky, but I felt like he was getting stronger,
and he threw four solid innings. I'm not real sure
(13:39):
if I would have taken him out there, I try.
I would have probably would have tried to squeeze one
more out of him. The way everything was set up,
I have no problem with him bringing Wu in. I
just felt like at this point Kirby was doing what
I expected him to do. He got better, his stuff
got better, his command got better. I just think you
roll the dice and throw him back out there for
one more inning. Here we go to the top of
(14:00):
the fifth. This is where some of the decision making
in my mind starts to get a little questionable. This
ties into where we are in the game today. Darters
can't face the lineup three times because if they get
seen so much, right, because the numbers tell you that
it doesn't work. Yeah, with your average run on the mill,
(14:22):
starter probably right, But when you have an ace out there,
you can throw those numbers out the window. But on
the same token, these same people tell you that it's
okay to run John Varlin out there ten out of the
last eleven games. And in a seven game series. It's
completely different than a regular season. It's completely different than
(14:42):
a three game series. It's completely different than a five
game series. You start running these guys out there four
or five times. Every time you get them up, you
get them hot, you sit them down, you get them up.
There's a lot it's not only the wear and tear
of the physical side of this, but the mental side
of this, where every pitch matter you start to grind
on them and emostly it becomes draining so and the
(15:05):
quality of stuff goes down. The longer these series go,
and the more you see a guy, generally the advantage
goes to the hitter because now you know what it
looks like. You see pitch shape, you see tendencies, you
see spin, You have an idea how they're trying to
get you out with this guy. So all this information
you're gaining as a hitter, it becomes more to you
(15:27):
than it did in the beginning. So I have no
problem with Schneider coming to get Varlin, framing Varlin in
for Beaver and the fourth, no problem at all. But
you've used him ten out of last eleven games, and
you have the entire staff to get through the next
four innings or five inches, whatever it is. You make
(15:50):
them go back out there now again his tenth game,
and out of eleven games they played, he's pitched and
he's given up some big homers. You're going into this
inning with two, three, four. You've got to go through
cal Rally, who's arguably the MVP, Naylor, who's hotter than
(16:12):
a firecracker, and Jorge Plonka, who already took you deep
earlier in the series. If that's the window and that's
the lane you wanted this guy to go in. We
got some questions to ask upstairs. To me, I'm going
with my best arm ups available, I think, and you
match it up. I think Gosman is a has better
stuff against that part of the lineup than Varlin does.
(16:35):
You're gonna use him. He's a starter. You want him
to start a clean inning. There it is. Barlin gets
you out of the fourth, you bring Gosman in. I'm
gonna bring him in anyways. I'm also bring him in now,
especially against two, three, four. It doesn't he ends up.
Varlin ends up. Give him a home run to cal Rally,
which when you hit sixty five of them on a season,
you take a lot of guys deep. But uh, it
(16:55):
just shows you how different a different looks. Cal strikes
out twice against biab Boom. Bring in a reliever, probably
throws harder and all that other stuff. He clicks him.
So now you're up three to one. I'm sure as
an MS fan, I know I was doing it if
I was managing. I'm thinking back to the second and
the going. Man, I really wish we'd hit a ground ball,
(17:16):
But four to one is a lot different than three
to one. It doesn't sound like much, but yes, it is.
Here we go, Barlin gets out of that, we keep
moving on. This is the other part of this. The
EMS bring in Wu with the fifth to face nine
to one to two. To me, this is where things
went awry. I think you can send Kirby back out
(17:38):
there to pitch to nine to one to two nothing
against Wu. I think you've got a two run cushion.
Now you can send him back out and see what happens.
If he walks a guy, if he gives him a hit,
then you have a decision to make. But you let
him try. He was getting better. I thought he was
getting better as the game went on. Nine to one
to two is a good window. And not only yes,
(17:59):
I know Wu got out of that with a one
two three inning. We end up getting adult playball. So
I think he walked the first guy. As you're thinking,
when he walks the first guy, you're thinking, oh boy,
you know this is where the second guessing comes in.
But his stuff is different. He has been the best
pitcher for the MS all season. Fastball's got ride. He
has trust, he has a little bit of tenacity to him.
(18:21):
I just would have waited one more inning, hoping that
Kirby can get through nine to one to two. And
now I have Wu facing Vlad with a two run lead,
a minimum of two run lead at the next inning.
I move on to the bottom of the seventh, and
this is whereat escapegoats are made, and this is where
legends are made. You have Wu who's still throwing for
the MS he starts the seventh. This goes back to
(18:44):
bringing him in an inning too soon. You probably think
he's gonna throw two innings, right, So if you back up,
let Kirby go five, you have Wu for six seven.
Now you have the entire chamber too empty to get
six outs in the eighth and nine. You let him
go out and start the seventh, have no problem with that.
They could get to a walk. He ends up given
(19:05):
a two strike single to connorfer Leffa, which was a
good piece of hitting. I don't think I don't think
Crawford got the best jump on that ball, but you
got a ground ball out of it. Now, to me,
this is where this is probably the biggest question I
had throughout the entire game. Is this ending right here?
And I'll explain why. If you're gonna start Woo in
(19:28):
that inning, you let him finish it. I thought stuff wise,
they bought him over. You got second and third woo.
Stuff is different. He's rested, sure, his command is not
exactly where it was in the beginning of the year
because he's just come off the rib injury. I'm gonna
let him ride. If I'm gonna let him start the inning,
(19:50):
and if you're gonna let him face the tying run
at the plate, you let him face to me, you
let him face Springer, you're gonna them finish that inning,
because there's a reason why you send him back out
there in the first place. I definitely leave him in
the game if you're gonna bring in Bizarrero. And this
is my biggest problem with the entire game. Bizardo threw
(20:11):
two innings in Game six, down four. So you're telling
me that, out of all the guys you have in
your pen, Bizarro and the highest leverage situation in this
game in game seven is Bizarrero against the top of
the order, probably for the last time in this series.
If he's your high leverage guy, why in the world
(20:34):
is he throwing two innings of a game in game
six when you're down four. It doesn't make any sense.
It doesn't make any sense at all. Look, I get
some thoughts of guys bringing in their closer. It's not
a bad spot to bring him in. It's not Ramos.
This is the game right here. Sure, as a manager,
you're not thinking about giving up a three run homer,
(20:56):
But just that situation I just described. If he's your
best arm to pitch the most cruel, crucial situation of
your season, why in the world is he pitching in
Game six, two innings when you're down four runs. It
just doesn't make sense. And I try to listen to
at the postgame. I didn't hear anybody mention that. Anybody
(21:16):
talk about that. I'm curious to see if anybody questions that,
because I'm sitting there like like my face is itching,
because I'm like, this doesn't make any sense. Kudos to
George Springer, My goodness, gracious, how he's able to walk
is a minor miracle. Let alone click one with that magnitude.
(21:37):
Season Country, however, you want to put it on the
line and you come through right there. Man, what a
feeling I feel for everybody in that regard, whether it's
joy or misery, though that's what those moments will take
for the rest of your life, whether you're good or bad.
But man, oh man, to be able to slow down
and do it time and time and time again, like
George Springer has, He's just got it. He's got it.
(22:01):
I don't think he's talked about enough as far as
that goes. I think he's third all time in postseason
home runs, which there's some really quality, really great players
that haven't had the opportunities he had. But to perform
in that situation and to do it time and time
and time again, to climb that ladder, that's really impressive.
(22:23):
I don't think he gets the credit he deserves for
being as good a player as he is and a
gamer that he is, and a culture changer as he is.
So this goes, I mean, go get We end up
getting out of that MS, get out of that to
one run game. We talked about it earlier. Momentum swing
is how do you handle them? They're going to happen.
They're gonna happen. It's October. You just took a sledgehammer
(22:46):
to the stomach. What do you do? How do you respond?
And I felt like the MS had the worst part
of the order and the worst guy leading off they
possibly could have. You're out there, you know that energy
is through the roof, and a Rosana goes up swings
to the first pitch. I don't really have a problem
with swinging at the first pitch, but it's intent. This
(23:07):
is where results kind of matter. You know. It's about
I know, free swinging, and you're gonna let your players
be do who they are, be who they are. I
know he didn't mean to do that, but if you're
gonna swing at the first pitch after that half inning,
it better be loud, and it better be a laser
(23:27):
or a better leave. It better knocks some paint off
the seats in the upper deck. It doesn't make any
sense you bring in a Bassett different look. Hasn't thrown much. Obviously,
he's full of adrenaline. I always talked about to the
teams that I've managed. Sometimes let the player let the
pitcher feel a situation. It's like base is loaded, he's
in trouble, not me let him feel this. Let him
(23:51):
feel the magnitude of the place on his feet. You
just hit a three run homer to put you up
a run, Let him feel, let him try to find it.
You're telling me that one pitch out of all the
guys they could have brought out stuff wise Bascett, Yes,
of course he's a big leaguer. Guess his stuff is incredible.
(24:11):
But it's not. It's not a reliever, it's not their closer.
It's let me see one, let me have him feel
this a little bit instead. There's nothing more valuable in
October one than first pitch outs. Ask any Ask any
pitcher who's pitched in the postseason. First pitch outs are
(24:32):
are sent from the heavens. It's the first pitch. Now,
all of a sudden, you got before you even sit
down and get finished drinking your water, coming off the field,
after just taking one straight in the gut, there's already
nobody on and one out. He ends up getting out
of it. Now, this is another part that I have.
So now the Blue Jays are hitting the bottom of
the eighth, you bring your closer in then, huh So
(24:54):
you'll bring him in in the bottom of the eighth
down a run, But you won't bring them in with
the game on the line the inning before. I understand
the whole You know that's the way you do it,
because you got to get through the bottom of the
eighth to get to the top of the ninth. But
your season is resting on the line. You threw multiple
(25:16):
innings in the Alds times when the game is in
the line, I think you want your best. It goes
back to what I talked about with Gosman Gosman in Parland.
I think Goswein's got better stuff. I think I want
my better stuff facing the top of the order. You're
going through that meating of the order. I want my
clotheser doing it. Granted, he gave up two rockets to
(25:37):
start the inning, but he got out of it. He
got out of a first and third. Nobody out because
his stuff overwhelmed some guys. You gotta punch out, and
he got out of it. He up a line drive
double play, which was obviously huge, but he gave up
some rockets, but he got out of it. You think
you started to see towards the end of that series
the wear and tear that the fifteen innings against Detroit
put on these guys and put on their bullpen. A
(25:58):
couple of the guys did look sharp at all, and
that's just from getting up and getting used so much.
Along the lines of stuff. Wise Brash has been their
eighth inning guy pretty much the whole season. He didn't
bring him in and you looked at his stuff in
Game six, h Slaughder didn't have any bite to it.
He labored through an inning. But all you need those
guys is you can get the way he works. You've
(26:20):
got the three batter minimum. I understand that, but you
can when you finish it any you bring them two outs.
He might only have to throw over the face one guy,
and if he gets that guy, you roll the dice
and keep the line moving and keep the door. It
just shows you how one pitch, one hitter, one matchup
can change the thought process of a manager, the thought
(26:42):
process of how we're gonna work this and how we're
gonna scale this. It changes a lot. When you have
that many available arms, you know you might as well
the one. Joe Torrey always talked about a man team
my gun. Joe Torrey was great at that. He never
left the bullet in the chamber. It didn't matter if
it was May or if it was October. He used
the entire arsenal and that's why he was so successful.
(27:04):
You roll into the top of the ninth hoffmins in
the game and I was texting some buddies and I
just said, if you have if you could have the
balls to just stand there and take I really truly
believe this guy would not throw three pitches in his
own And it just so happened that the M's were
(27:24):
at the Mariners were in a bad spot their lineup revs.
Pinch Hitter, his own young guys probably thinking about trying
to tie the game up with one swing. Stay who
you are, be true to who you are. I think
the biggest detriment to Revis was the fact that he
almost did a home running game. I think it was
game six. H at the top of the fence might
(27:46):
have been the worst thing that happened to him, because
now he's thinking he can do that again, and he
got away from what and the reason why he was
in the lineup to start with was his contact ability.
If you noticed, he ended up Hoffman ended up punching
out both of them start the end. You know that
leadoff hitter. I know it's hard. Let me wrong, I
know it's hard. I know it's this makes really easy
to do it from the couch. But if you can
(28:07):
have the trust and the belief that, like, okay, I'm
gonna make this guy throw three pitches in his zone.
If he gets me out in the strike zone, I
can handle it. I'm not gonna chase all three hitters
that it ain't chased, you know. I said it in
Game six, watching Hoffman throw like he's not throwing a
ton of strikes. He's getting a lot of swing and misses.
Stuff wise, his stuff isn't really any better than what
(28:31):
these guys normally see as far as velocity wise, spin wise,
all that to see guys chase. I get Julio chasing
in the ninth two to oh, you know, sweeper slider
that's way off the plate. Look, I get it. I
don't mind my stuperstars trying to tie the game up.
I had a problem with my eight to nine. Try
to do it. Be who you are, Be who you are.
(28:52):
Get on first, find a way, stay short. Look at
the bottom of the order. On the other, the Blue Jays,
they're relentless, they keep coming singles. Contact. Where are you down,
Kase Mahomer and baseball is really huge. If you see
a little, you see a lot. If you see a lot,
you see nothing. And that pretty much sums up hitting.
If you think small, big things will happen. If you
(29:15):
think big, nothing happens, And that's kind of what you saw.
The youth and the inexperience of the Mariners probably never
getting the World Series really was for the first time.
It overtook some of their guys. You look at them
even in Game six three errors uncharacteristic. I thought they
played a hell a lot better in Game seven. But
at the end of the day, it's a shame that
(29:37):
one of these teams had to lose. Wrap it up.
All in all, this was a phenomenal series, back and forth,
two fan bases starving to make it to the World Series,
a couple players on the Mariners and Joy Polanco Mitch
Garver was pulling like hell for them to get to
the World Series. Each of them had their moments in
this series that helped their team win. The Blue Jays
(29:59):
I managed again Vlad Junior Boba Schett played for Donnie
don natally got me into coaching. Ross Atkins, the general
manager of the Blue Jays. I went to Japan when
I was eleven with him. He went to crol Gables.
I went to Westminster and Palmetto, so I played against
him in high school. He went to Wake Forest. I
went to Floria State, so we played against each other there.
(30:20):
Ross was drafted by the Cleveland Indians at the time.
I was a twin. We've played each other, played against
each other in Double A. So really happy for don
Nintalley and getting in the World Series. Love it. I'm
so happy for him, So happy for Ross. You know,
I think it's a shame that one team had to
lose this and one fan base had to lose this.
(30:41):
It's just that's what Game sevens are all about, and
they delivered. Each team will look back at this later
on in life and realize they're just be happy they
were a part of it. Sure you want to win,
of course, but just to say you were a part
of something like that and you were there to witness that,
you know, it goes without saying. So congrat relations to
the Toronto Blue Jays, Ross, Donnie John You guys have
(31:03):
an uphill paddle. Pretty cool that if the Blue Jays
pulled this off. Donnie would go through the Yankees and
the Dodgers for both teams that one team he played for,
and both teams he coached for, and one of them
he managed for. So I think all in all, the
Blue Jays are better suited to match up with the Dodgers.
(31:29):
I don't think they have the pitching the Dodgers do,
but they have the lineup and their lineups are very similar,
not in names, but in production, they're very similar. So
we'll definitely do a World Series preview. But that's just
the quick and the off the top of my head
thought of this. Here we go. I know one thing,
(31:51):
the Dodgers were pissed that the Blue Jays pulled this off.
Here's why. That flight from LA to Seattle is a
hell of a lot closer through than that flight from
LA to through Customs into Toronto. That's gonna be a
tough one. That's a long trip. That's a long trip
from LA to Toronto. But should be good. Should be
a good series. Hopefully it's more than four or five games,
(32:15):
because that means baseball's over. But we'll do a whole
recap and who'll probably a lead into the World Series
when we get closer to it. But that's gonna wrap
up this Game seven edition of The Dugout. Appreciate you listening.
Check me out wherever you hear your favorite podcast, Apple, Spotify,
check me out on Twitter, check me out on Instagram
if you'd like, leave a comment, ask questions. Would love
(32:38):
to do some kind of watch party during the World Series.
Talk the game. Love talking the game to most people
on Twitter. Not everybody, but most people. So until next time,
this is your host, Doug. Take care,
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